Have you ever found a random pill in your purse, on the floor, or elsewhere and forgotten where it came from and what it is? Luckily, there is a free resource from the National Library of Medicine that can help you identify those mystery pills! Pillbox is a website that can be searched by various characteristics of the pill you want to identify, including imprint … Continue reading Identifying Mystery Pills with Pillbox

Recent posts on STS-l about citizen science projects reminded me of the citizen science site, Zooniverse. Zooniverse is a directory of citizen science projects, organized by broad subject areas such as Arts, Climate, History, and Physics. Obviously not all of the projects included in Zooniverse are being conducted in the sciences, so the meaning of citizen science perhaps needs a little clarification. Citizen science is … Continue reading Zooniverse – A Citizen Science Directory

Most of us can use help understanding a scientific concept at some point. There are popular quotes attributed to Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman espousing the opinion that if you cannot explain something simply, or to a six year old, you do not really understand it. Even if the words were not uttered by the eminent physicists, I imagine the logic behind them, the value … Continue reading 5 Levels of Science Communication by Wired

In recognition of the advancing hurricanes, I would like to remind everyone of the abundant information available at USGS.gov, the United States Geological Survey, and NOAA.gov, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and their many tools for collecting data and keeping watch. Each significant hurricane has a web page, or go to The National Hurricane Center.  Go directly to the NHC link to see the … Continue reading National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Latest Thinking is an open-access video journal that provides summaries of research findings from several branches of academics, including life sciences, physical sciences, medicine, and engineering. The goal of Latest Thinking is to increase the impact of the author’s research and promote transparency of the scientific process. Each video averages around 10 minutes and contains five parts: research question, methods, findings, relevance, and outlook. The … Continue reading Latest Thinking

The Mathematics Genealogy Project (MGP) is an online reference tool for mathematicians from all over the world.  Entries list where and when mathematicians received their degree, the title of their dissertation, the name of their advis0r, and the name of all of the students they then advised.  The names of the advisor and the students can be clicked on, which is a great way to … Continue reading Mathematics Genealogy Project

Often when I teach students about our chemistry databases, I will also mention some free chemistry resources, because once they graduate and begin working, they may no longer have access to commercial databases such as Reaxys or SciFinder. In addition to our subscribed chemistry databases, there are many quality chemistry resources that are freely available. Following is a sample of some of these, but the … Continue reading Free (and sometimes overlooked) Chemistry Resources

Need some good examples of addenda that authors can use to make their work open access? Is your institution considering providing an open access publishing fund and you want to get an overview of what others are offering? Need some suggestions for researchers looking for advice on where to make their documents or research data open? The Open Access Directory launched in 2008 and is a … Continue reading The Open Access Directory

As is evident from their name, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for overseeing drugs that are researched, marketed, sold, etc. in the U.S. As a result, they maintain a host of databases for looking up various types of drug information, most of which can be found on their Drug Approvals and Databases page. I would like to highlight a few of … Continue reading FDA Drug Information Resources

The non-profit, privately funded Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, Missouri, houses scientific, engineering, and technology resources from the United States and some international works from the 15th century to the present. The library presents technical programs, has digital displays, allows researchers to study there, and provides fellowships for scholars using the collections. It also provides regular library services, such as an online catalog, reference … Continue reading The Linda Hall Library